This is the greatest era of PC gaming

holdenhamlet

Currently I have a bunch of online games I enjoy playing.  I've never had so many games to play depending on my mood.  None of them have a sub, so I don't have to worry about dropping any of them at any time.

- Black Desert
- Overwatch
- SMITE
- Hearthstone

There are literally TONS of other online choices for PC gaming.  With STEAM and Kickstarter going strong, there are new games being made constantly.  Almost every week it seems like there's a new interesting game to check out on PC.

I think back to a couple years ago and I would be playing like 1 online game, and there would be 1 or 2 decent offline games made every 6 months or so.

This is the greatest era of PC gaming, and it shows no sign of stopping any time soon.

Moirae

rofl. MMO's may be succeeding, but MMORPG's are failing in a huge way because all the companies want more money. All those games look like total crap to me. I don't trust a word out of any of these devs mouths. The only company still doing things the old way is WoW and even when they were first out they offered less than the other game companies (and they are crashing and burning as they have lost so many subs in recent years that they are half of what they were and won't release sub numbers anymore. They are a sub only game). Greed is destroying the MMO industry. Kickstarter is a joke and simply seems to be a way to get more money out of players as most of them go belly up long before they're released and there have even been indications that some of them were simple theft right from the start as those running them disappeared after making millions on Kickstarter. 

Now RPGs are getting better as we see things like Mass Effect, Dragon Age and the Witcher rise to the top but nothing in the industry is proving to even remotely match those in the near future. The only game I'm looking forward to at the moment is the new Mass Effect. 

So your's? It's an opinion. Nothing more. 

nariusseldon

Moirae said:

rofl. MMO's may be succeeding, but MMORPG's are failing in a huge way because all the companies want more money.

So? We can still be in a great era of PC gaming without great MMORPG. May be MMORPGs are just not that important to PC gaming anymore?

Personally i am very happy with gaming. Deus Ex, Dishonored, ... lots of great games going to be released. MGS Phantom Pain, Rise of the Tomb Raider .. lots of released great games I have not had time to play yet.

holdenhamlet

Moirae said:

rofl. MMO's may be succeeding, but MMORPG's are failing in a huge way because all the companies want more money. All those games look like total crap to me. I don't trust a word out of any of these devs mouths. The only company still doing things the old way is WoW and even when they were first out they offered less than the other game companies (and they are crashing and burning as they have lost so many subs in recent years that they are half of what they were and won't release sub numbers anymore. They are a sub only game). Greed is destroying the MMO industry. Kickstarter is a joke and simply seems to be a way to get more money out of players as most of them go belly up long before they're released and there have even been indications that some of them were simple theft right from the start as those running them disappeared after making millions on Kickstarter. 

Now RPGs are getting better as we see things like Mass Effect, Dragon Age and the Witcher rise to the top but nothing in the industry is proving to even remotely match those in the near future. The only game I'm looking forward to at the moment is the new Mass Effect. 

So your's? It's an opinion. Nothing more. 

I think you're living in the past.  If the only thing you have to look forward to is the new Mass Effect and you aren't currently playing anything, well, that's gotta suck.  I don't even know what you're going on about with the "not trusting a thing out of these devs mouths".  If the game is good who cares what the Devs say?

SEANMCAD

The quality of the games coming out of Early Access is outstanding.

A few years ago I almost gave up gaming completely. nothing both shooter after shooter after combat after combat after combat after combat after long cut scene after repeat the same fucking game 1000 times.

but yeah games like Kerbal Space Program, Space Engineers, 7 Days to Die and others I havent played yet like Ark, The Forest and even Rust just to name a few restored my intrest in gaming

yes, its the best era of gaming for the PC

SEANMCAD

by far the most intresting things in all of gaming going on right now is in the indie market. Triple As are still pushing out the exact same crap they have been for more than a decade

Octagon7711

I'm really happy with all the different types of games out there.  I have a list of games I play regularly and a list I don't have time to play but may play later.  No trips to the store to look for and buy box games.  Mins. to d/l a game with a high speed connection instead of hours and days with the old dialup modems.  Multiple gaming platforms like cells, tablets, laptops, consoles, pc.  I can play with players from all over the planet.  Yes, there are negatives, but there will always be good things and bad things about gaming and if you mostly focus on the bad then why play at all?  So focus on the good stuff and enjoy the moment.  Good times...

SEANMCAD

MisterZebub said:

holdenhamlet said:

Moirae said:

rofl. MMO's may be succeeding, but MMORPG's are failing in a huge way because all the companies want more money. All those games look like total crap to me. I don't trust a word out of any of these devs mouths. The only company still doing things the old way is WoW and even when they were first out they offered less than the other game companies (and they are crashing and burning as they have lost so many subs in recent years that they are half of what they were and won't release sub numbers anymore. They are a sub only game). Greed is destroying the MMO industry. Kickstarter is a joke and simply seems to be a way to get more money out of players as most of them go belly up long before they're released and there have even been indications that some of them were simple theft right from the start as those running them disappeared after making millions on Kickstarter. 

Now RPGs are getting better as we see things like Mass Effect, Dragon Age and the Witcher rise to the top but nothing in the industry is proving to even remotely match those in the near future. The only game I'm looking forward to at the moment is the new Mass Effect. 

So your's? It's an opinion. Nothing more. 

I think you're living in the past.  If the only thing you have to look forward to is the new Mass Effect and you aren't currently playing anything, well, that's gotta suck.  I don't even know what you're going on about with the "not trusting a thing out of these devs mouths".  If the game is good who cares what the Devs say?

And I think you are making a rather arrogant judgement call that you don't have the right to make. If you currently see this era as a gaming utopia then great, I'm happy you're happy. If however you feel that gives you right to sit in judgement over anyone who may have a different opinion, then get over yourself.

While I can't deny there are some fantastic games out there, and the industry is booming like never before, I also can't deny the fact that I'm actually finding myself purchasing and playing less games now days than I did ten to fifteen years ago. And this year alone I'd have to say that at least half those purchases were actually repurchases of beloved vintage games that have been repackaged to play on modern computers.

Try Space Engineers

Viper482

holdenhamlet said:

Currently I have a bunch of online games I enjoy playing.  I've never had so many games to play depending on my mood.  None of them have a sub, so I don't have to worry about dropping any of them at any time.

- Black Desert
- Overwatch
- SMITE
- Hearthstone

There are literally TONS of other online choices for PC gaming.  With STEAM and Kickstarter going strong, there are new games being made constantly.  Almost every week it seems like there's a new interesting game to check out on PC.

I think back to a couple years ago and I would be playing like 1 online game, and there would be 1 or 2 decent offline games made every 6 months or so.

This is the greatest era of PC gaming, and it shows no sign of stopping any time soon.

Before you can claim this is the greatest era.....how old are you and how long have you been PC gaming?

Grunty

You find what you're looking for. If you're looking for shit then you'll find shit everywhere you look.

flizzer

My biggest complaint is not enough time to play all the games.  Defintely a golden era for people who love online gaming. 

rush1984

its the worst for me , ive not had any other games to play other than heroes of the storm and hearthstone :S i really need vanilla wow in my life right now

Avanah

I just wish it were the day CoE released.....

Theocritus

Overwatch and Hearthstone? Another sucker for Blizzards crap

Quizzical

I agree.  1975-2025 has been the greatest era of PC gaming by far.  It's so much better than 1700-1750.

vanderghast

This is the best era?  ROFL no.  This is by far the worst.

Microtransactions.  games shipping missing content that is released later as paid DLC etc.  No more microsoft flight sim.  Flight sims are dead as a genre in general.  As far as MMO's nothing touches original EQ.

I've been gaming since the beginning of computer gaming and this is by far the worst time in PC gaming as far as quality and diversity of games.

Wizardry

Considering there are likely 2-5k games on the market,i would hope everyone can find something to play.

However fact that the OP is jumping around saying tons of games to play,tells me that NONE are really that good because if they were THAT good ,that one game would be the steady go to game.
Example when i became embedded in FFXi ,i stopped playing UT99,i stopped playing MTG and i stopped playing EQ as well as Quake and a couple others.
I played ONE game and that one game almost everyday,that to me says a game is really good.Right now i am not playing a single mmorpg or mmo,there is nothing good on the market for multiplayer.

Op mentions HS>>>SOLO game
OW>>>>SOLO game
BDO >>>>solo game
Smite >>>Solo game

Such a large quantity of games but not much for a true mmo feel.

I actually see this era of gaming as a huge blackmark,so many hermits and soloists,people not even getting out of their homes,instead locked up behind a PC screen soloing games.I would not and i am certain our parents would not call this era anything good at all.

holdenhamlet

"However fact that the OP is jumping around saying tons of games to play,tells me that NONE are really that good because if they were THAT good ,that one game would be the steady go to game.
Example when i became embedded in FFXi ,i stopped playing UT99,i stopped playing MTG and i stopped playing EQ as well as Quake and a couple others."

I used to just have one steady go-to game.  In fact, for a few years, it was FFXI too for me.

But now I have games for like any mood I'm in.  Feel like zoning out and grinding- BDO.  Strategic gameplay- SMITE.  Rolling dice to piss myself off- Hearthstone.  Fast-paced twitchy gameplay- Overwatch.

FFXI could never satisfy all these gaming desires- only pretty much the same one BDO satisfies now.

Back when I played FFXI, it wasn't that I was never in the mood for something like a great fast-paced twitchy shooter- it's just that Overwatch wasn't out then.  There was shooters, sure, but nothing that appealed to me.  Nothing really like SMITE or Hearthstone either.

It's not just these games though.  I also STILL have Dark Souls 3 to get through.  Every week it seems something interesting comes out that looks like fun- last couple weeks it's been Dead by Daylight.

Started playing Zero Escape last night with my girlfriend and it's tons of fun with her solving puzzles and watching the cutscenes.

nariusseldon

flizzer said:

My biggest complaint is not enough time to play all the games.  Defintely a golden era for people who love online gaming. 

Same here. And not only online gaming, there are tons of great single player games. I just bought Phantom Pain at a steam sales, and I have zero time to play it yet (beyond the first tutorial mission). 

vonryan123

In terms of anything of worth its one of the worst periods in gaming ever........now that's my opinion and most of every one I know, so if your having a good time great! at least someone is....every game you listed imo sucks

Octagon7711

The only thing I don't like about today's gaming is not being able to enjoy future VR and AR technology.  Other than that, I'm very happy about gaming, and my first game was Pong when it first came out in the seventies.

Baitness

Really OP is right.  We have never had this many options, never had this many games with decent player populations, never had it be this low cost to start different games.

The lowered quality of the games we are playing is really just the developers having different goals and trying to iterate on the old MMO formula with varying levels of success.

Looking back at MMOs, most people will only find one game in the entire genre that they enjoyed at any given time.  The large number of MMO players that really want to take part in a 'virtual world' is currently disenfranchised, with no great options.  Other types of MMO gamers should be very happy with the current state of things, though.  There are games with challenging action combat, games with fantastic dungeon crawling, pvp games, games that focus on storytelling/narrative, games that are loaded with dynamic events, and even MMOs that can be played on a phone.

Most of the people less pleased with the current state of MMORPGs are the ones seeking a 'virtual world.'

Dullahan

Someone is trying too hard.

Alders

Baitness said:

 games with fantastic dungeon crawling

What is this game you speak of and where can i find it?

Antiquated

We could all play this game. Let's take 1993 (for example), in a single year:

• X-Wing
• Star Fox
• Maniac Mansion
• Myst
• Doom
• Syndicate

There's some very important titles, and only a small part of the total output for that year.

You look around at this year's output for significant titles ... ... ...

Have to wonder just how much of this year's output will be fondly remembered even five years down the road, let alone twenty-five.

Baitness

Alders said:

Baitness said:

 games with fantastic dungeon crawling

What is this game you speak of and where can i find it?

WoW, FFXIV, RIFT, Skyforge, and Wildstar all have great dungeons.  You may end up disliking other things about them, but their dungeon designs are solid and plentiful.  

WoW has always been and continues to be at the front of thinking up dungeon mechanics.  It also afaik has the most dungeons on my little list here.

FFXIV has some truly beautiful dungeons and some good boss mechanics, but really weak trash pulls that are never anything more than AoE fodder.  Crowd-control lovers need not apply.  What makes them fun is seeing references to classic final fantasy enemies, seeing fresh mechanics in every dungeon (the hard modes are actually completely new dungeons just set in the same location, taking a different path, fighting different enemies), the music, and the well tuned difficulty levels.

RIFT had fantastic dungeons and great raids when I last played it.  They weren't afraid to make mechanics tough, and you even had to be careful with some trash pulls.  If you like careful organized pulling, fun class specs, and interesting boss mechanics, this is a solid bet.

Despite it getting loads of deserved hate around here, I thought Skyforge dungeons in particular were excellent.  They scale with number of players/gear, and you can select difficulty.  Skyforge removes the healer in favor of a 'support' role (but one support class has damage shields), and doing so brings a lot more teamwork back into party play.  Bosses drop a heal orb every time one of their health bars is depleted, so there is a limit on how much damage you can let your tank sustain.  Some classes can self heal, but cannot tank.  There are loads of other problems with the game, but the dungeons were a bright spot along with the combat.  If you do not mind a lobby-based game, and have no desire to compete at the top level (which costs real money), you can get a lot of fun out of this game.

Wildstar I don't play, but I watched loads of videos when I was picking a new MMO.  I was really impressed with well designed their raid mechanics were.  I installed it, found that the engine performed really poorly, and uninstalled it.

If you are willing to go to non MMOs we also have loads of great dungeoning ARPGs.  Diablo 3 (I still hate it, but it has really improved and earned a lot of fans), Path of Exile, Grim Dawn, Torchlight II, Titan Quest is about to be re-released on phones(!), and of course people still play the champion - Diablo II.

If you are looking for a game to dungeon crawl through, these games will fit the bill.  

They all have other things that you may not like (some of them are just lobbies where you port to dungeons, some are tab target others are action, etc).

They also all have some straight out flaws (WoW being a hollow shell with less content every expansion, FFXIV having slow combat and being a dungeon grind with limited other options for levelling, RIFT being underpopulated and starting p2w, Skyforge being straight out p2w in a game that is literally a lobby, Wildstar having low population and a poor engine).

But even with those issues, the dungeons are good.